Facebook Pisses Off Its Users Yet Again

There’s a reason Google has stuck with the same simple, stripped-down home page from the beginning. Just ask Facebook, which is learning a nasty lesson about the dangers of making fundamental changes in an experience that users have fully assimilated into their daily lives. Last week, the giant social network rolled out a new redesign that seemed designed to make the Facebook experience more Twitter-like for its 175 million users. Combine that with the company’s recent decision — after a surrepticious change in its rules of usership led to a massive outcry — to solicit user comments . . .and Facebook has been besieged with 625,000 comments to date, most of them hating the new look. Now, every tech commentator from Robert Scoble to ValleyWag has jumped in to voice their own opinions, ranging from accusing Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg of not caring about his customers (ValleyWag) to telling those same customers to grow up and accept inevitable change (Scoble). Meanwhile, Facebook isn’t commenting — is it possible for those folks to be more out of synch with their users?